Upon waking Merlin saw Gaius who was snoring next to him, his head on the desk. Merlin tried to sit up but bit back a moan when he felt it pull at his ribs. When he did this Gaius woke and immediately started checking his pupils and such.
"Gaius, I'm fine," he said.
"No you are not fine," said Gaius, "You have three broken ribs, three large cuts on your chest from where the Comedor got you which I had to stitch together and a concussion."
"Huh. Not as bad as I thought it was-"
"You have to speak to Arthur."
There was a pause.
"About what?"
"You know what. He's been in a right state. Everyone's congratulating him on killing the Comedor and he's trying to act modest because he knows you killed it and are only letting him take the credit. He's trying to act like he's not worried but we can all tell he is. You need to talk to him."
Merlin thought for a moment. A lot had happened in the last week or so.
Gaius stood up.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"To get Arthur."
"Wow. You really want me to talk to him don't you."
"That too. But I promised him I'd get him once you regained consciousness," said Gaius, beginning to walk out.
"Wait! How long have I been out?" he called out.
"Two days."
And he left the room.
Arthur braced himself outside the door. Gaius had come to get him mere minutes ago to tell him that Merlin was awake.
He took a deep breath and walked in.
Merlin was indeed awake. He looked a right mess, with all the bandages and was very pale. He looked much like he did when he was poisoned.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi," said Arthur.
"So…" said Merlin awkwardly.
There was a silence after that, which Arthur broke as a question burst forth from his lips.
"Did you really do all those things?"
"All what things?" he asked frowning.
"Gaius told me all the times you've saved my life," he told him.
"He did?"
"Well, up until the questing beast anyway," amended Arthur.
There was another silence, this one as awkward as the first.
"Yes. Yes I did do all those things. But I've done a lot more than just save your life. I'm ashamed to say that some of my actions have caused more harm than good," said Merlin quietly.
"What do you mean?" asked Arthur.
Merlin took a deep breath and said, "I helped the Lady Morgana."
"Huh?"
Merlin closed his eyes and bowed his head, then said, "Morgana has magic."
"What!"
"Yes. It was her that caused the fire in her room that time," he looked up, "I was foolish Arthur. Rather than tell her that I was also magic, I showed her where to find the Druids."
Arthur was puzzled. It must have shown on his face too because Merlin then said, "She's tried to kill the King many times."
"What! Morgana? But then…if she really has tried…then that means she's a traitor and…wait hang on! By 'she's tried to kill the King many times' do you mean you've stopped her?"
"I'm astonished Arthur. You just found out that your surrogate sister is an evil sorcerer and you're more surprised to find out that I've saved your fathers life."
"Well…It's just that, if the King was to die-"
"If the King was to die at magic's hand you would be as bad as your father," said Merlin bluntly.
This greatly surprised Arthur. Not what he said, no, but the tone in which he said it.
Then Merlin spoke again, "Do not mistake the fact that I've saved his life for loyalty. I am not loyal to Uther, I'm loyal to you. You are, of course, loyal to your father, so by extension…"
There was another awkward silence.
"You're father would have me killed," said Merlin, softly.
Arthur thought about this for a moment. Here was Merlin saying that the only reason his father was still alive was because Merlin didn't want him to be the same as his father. Could he trust him? And then he realized that he had decided to trust him the moment he thrown him his sword in the battle with the Comedor.
"I'm not my father. I won't kill you," he said.
"I wouldn't say that just yet," said Merlin.
"What? Why?"
"There are things you don't know yet."
"Like what."
Pause.
"Do you remember when everyone in Camelot was asleep?"
"Yes."
"Morgana was the source of the sleep."
"That…makes sense."
"I poisoned her."
"…"
"I had to," said Merlin.
"I…understand Merlin. Why do I get the feeling that that's not what you're talking about though?" said Arthur.
"To get the information to stop the sleep on Camelot, I talked to the Great Dragon-"
"Gaius already told me that you talked to the Great Dragon."
"I had to promise on my mothers life to set him free."
"…You what!"
Merlin merely hung his head.
"You- you- you!"
"Me," he said.
"Do you have any idea the amount of lives lost because of you're actions? People died Merlin!" he shouted.
"I know."
And it was said with such remorse, with such so much guilt in his voice, that Arthur was silenced.
He realized that Merlin knew, really knew what was lost because of his actions.
"Who?" Arthur asked.
"What?"
"Who died?"
Realizing what he meant, Merlin said, "Balinor."
"Balinor?"
"He was my father."
"What? But…oh…Merlin…I'm so sorry," he said.
"It's alright. But anyway…because I was his son, when he died, the powers of the Dragon Lord passed down to me."
"Wait," said Arthur, "you're a Dragon Lord! But…I didn't kill the dragon did I?"
Arthur saw the corners of Merlins lips twitch, "No, you didn't."
"You killed the Great Dragon."
"Well…no…"
"Well who did then?"
"I didn't kill him…I let him live."
"What?"
"I showed him mercy. Look, even if he wanted to attack Camelot again, he couldn't. I've ordered him not to."
"Merlin-"
"I'm not going to apologise."
Arthur looked at Merlin in the eyes. He really wasn't going to apologize for his actions.
"Okay."
"Okay?" said Merlin, taken aback.
"Yeah. Okay."
"Merlin! Where are we going?"
"Just a little farther!" Merlin called back.
"You know Gaius said you won't supposed to strain yourself!"
"I know! Trust me!"
It had been nearly two weeks since the Comedor. There had already been a feast in honour of Arthur for defeating the Comedor, where Uther made a long winded speech about how Arthur had truly proved himself to be worthy of the throne…Merlin thought he'd said that after he'd 'defeated' the Great Dragon too.
They came upon a clearing and Merlin walked to the middle.
And before Arthur could say anything he roared the ancient magical words to the sky, making Arthur jump.
"Woah! What did you just do?" he asked.
"You'll see," was all he said.
Already in the distance he could hear the great flapping of wings. He watched as Kilgarrah came into view. He looked over Arthur to see his mouth open in shock.
As Kilgarrah landed he said, "Well, well, well. So the young Pendragon knows."
"I thought you'd like to know," said Merlin.
"You thought correct, young Warlock. But you needn't of brought the Prince along with you."
Merlin shrugged and said, "I also thought you should meet."
"And now so we have," he said.
"Arthur, this is Kilgarrah," said Merlin.
"Hey," he said faintly.
The Great Dragon merely smirked.
"I must warn you Merlin, the witch, Morgana is getting bolder and bolder in her moves to kill the King. We both know she must not succeed," he said.
"I know."
They looked at each other for a moment and then Kilgarrah said, "Oh…fine! Get on."
"Yes!" said Merlin and he dragged a still slightly shocked Arthur over to him.
"Get up," said Merlin.
"What? Merlin, I'm not getting on!" said Arthur.
"Not scared are you?" teased Merlin.
Arthur looked at Merlin, who was waiting patiently.
"Fine!" he said and awkwardly he climbed on.
Merlin however stayed on the ground.
"What, aren't you getting on too?" asked Arthur worriedly.
"Nope."
And he watched as Kilgarrah took off and he heard the distant cries of both fear and exhilaration as Arthur flew through the sky.
Gosh that was a longer chapter than I normally do! I hope I did alright. This is the first multi chapter fic I've ever seen through to the end, you know. Yeah, you understood correct, that's it. No more chapters. The Story is done. I would like to sincerely thank all the people who reviewed, alert-ed and favourite-ed. I truly appreciate it. I'm also very sorry if I spelt Kilgarrah wrong. I hope I didn't. I'd also like to say that if anyone is planning any holidays in south-east Queensland Australia, I recommend going to the Handmade Expo which is held once every month (except January) on the Ipswich Turf Club in Bundamba, it really is awesome, and if you see a choir walking around singing, I'm the older one with red hair! But the chances of anyone reading this and thinking, 'Hey I'm going on holiday out that way! Let's go!' is slim, I know. I mean who would want to holiday out here? It's an hour to any beach and Ipswich is a hole. But it was just on my mind.
And before I say goodbye to writing in the Merlin fandom for a while, I'd just like to say how awesome you guys are, and that EVERYONE (even those who didn't review, but took the time to read my Authors notes) deserve the BIGGEST choc-chip cookie in the WORLD! If any of you like Harry Potter than check out my next fic 'The Marauders Come to Rosewood' here's the blurb.
'When the Marauders step in the grate to go to Australian school Rosewood High for a year, they never imagined that it would be the year 2010!'
Basically the Marauders find themselves in the year 2010 in an Australian school. It's set to be big and HAS A PLOT PEOPLES! Co-written by my friend Siobhan who gave me ideas. It's funny too, so even if you don't live in Australia it's still fun to read.
So for the last time in a while in this fandom- REVIEW! I want to know what you thought! Come on people! We are the generation who created Facebook! Giving our opinions is what we do BEST!
